The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it's satisfied – again - with the archaeology done at the SugarHouse site and no further digging needs to happen before a permit is issued.

This doesn't mean the Corps is close to deciding whether or not to give SugarHouse the permit it needs to build its casino project as planned. The Corps also looks at environmental and other issues, and some are still outstanding. But if the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation concur with the Corps' assessment, it will mean SugarHouse has satisfied the federal requirement for a historical review of its Delaware Avenue.

“We're certainly hopeful, but we'll take our directions from the Army Corps,” said SugarHouse spokeswoman Leigh Whitaker.

While SugarHouse is pleased, some of the consulting parties – a group of local historians, neighborhood activists and archaeologists who advise the historic review process – are not.

“It's a farce,” consulting party Torben Jenk, a preservationist and amateur historian, said of the process.

The Corps previously announced its satisfaction with the dig last August. That action peeved the consulting parties, who were frustrated that the Corps had taken this step, and others, without an in-person meeting. This was especially true since many of the consulting parties – including Jenk and Philadelphia Archaeological Forum President Douglas Mooney – had long been dissatisfied with the archaeological work done by SugarHouse archaeologist consultant A.D. Marble of Conshohocken.

Location: philadelphia -umm loft district/chinatown, i don't know what its called

Posts: 217

Parking garage

WOW just what everyone always wanted on the water front a massive parking garage...lol......well at least it is going to bring in revenue for the city......I too hope there is a re-design in accordance with the Penn Praxis plans....

Yes indeed. Penn Praxis has no physical teeth whatsoever insofar as already-permitted developments are exempted from the plan. Nutter has endorsed it, though, and several of its early recommendations are moving forward. Insofar as SugarHouse is concerned, though, they do have the ability to build and ignore the city, but I'm hopeful the city can prevail upon them for better massing/siting on their spot.

Is this really under construction? Or are they still digging for historical importances?

No building yet. They just got a key permit, though.

What I would to improve this...
1.) Make the garage smaller.
2.) Make the garage smaller.
3.) Bring it out to the street.
4.) Stick some retail on its streetside.
5.) Put a walking trail between it and the river.
6.) Make the garage smaller.
7.) Put a green roof on top of the garage.

The state Gaming Control Board will hear from the two developers planning to build slots parlors in the city this week to find out where their long-delayed plans stand.

The status hearing is on Wednesday morning in Harrisburg.

A state court last month put a special master in charge of overseeing the SugarHouse Casino project to make sure the city wasn't slowing it from starting to build. The city issued the casino a foundation permit to begin work late last month.

Meanwhile, Foxwoods Casino is still putting its plans together to attempt to get state approval to build its project on Market East instead of along the Delaware River waterfront.

The starting time of Wednesday’s Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board meeting – at which SugarHouse and Foxwoods casino interests have been asked to detail why they have yet to open – has been moved up from 11 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

The switch angered some local activists who plan to show up by the busload and believe the time change was made to discourage Philadelphia residents from making the trip to Harrisburg. But the Control Board says the change was necessary to get other business out of the way, and the Philadelphia casino discussion won’t happen until about 11 a.m.

“We find it already shameful that the PGCB plans to hold a public meeting on Philadelphia casinos outside our city,” says a press statement released by Asian Americans United on Friday. "In addition, the PGCB has announced that there will be no opportunity for public comment. But this latest move further demonstrates PGCB’s determination to thwart public participation.”

Gaming Control Board spokesman Doug Harbach said the PGCB has a full agenda, and so it decided to start early so the meeting doesn’t run too late. The items not related to SugarHouse and Foxwoods will be dealt with first, he said, and so the discussion that many from Philadelphia want to hear “is not going to happen until 11 or later, anyway,” he said.

AAU also questions why there will be no public comment period. Harbach said this is standard procedure at a regular board meeting. The Board has held regular meetings outside of Harrisburg, Harbach said, but that involves spending state money on travel and overnight accomodations - expenses that won't be incurred during this budget crunch. If this was a hearing on a petition regarding a Philadelphia casino, the meeting would be held in Philadelphia, he said. Hearings also include time for public comment period.

“If (a Philadelphia casino) requests a significant change to the condition of their license, such as moving to a different location, we will come into the city,” he said.

A hearing is likely on the horizon for both SugarHouse and Foxwoods. SugarHouse’s operating license expired late last year. The casino has asked for an extension. There will be a hearing, which has not yet been scheduled, before the board makes a decision.

Foxwoods’ operating license will expire this summer. Foxwoods’ license is for a site at Columbus Boulevard and Reed Street, along the riverfront in South Philadelphia. But under pressure from the city, Foxwoods agreed to explore an alternative location: Either at the Burlington Coat Factory or the former Strawbridge’s site at Market East.

City officials once hoped to persuade SugarHouse to move off of the waterfront, too. But they have recently said they have given up that effort, and now hope to convince the casino to make some design changes that will make the slots operation more compatible with the city’s long-term goals for waterfront development.

Harbach said he tried to reach Casino-Free Philadelphia this morning to alert them of the reasons for the time change Wednesday, and that State Rep. Michael O’Brien was trying to reach AAU board member Helen Gym.

Both casinos have blamed city government for delays in construction. Each took that argument to the State Supreme Court. The administration denies stalling and says it wants to get SugarHouse and Foxwoods up and running as quickly as possible. The High Court sided with the casinos in both cases and appointed a Special Master to act as a go-between as the casinos deal with the city.

Friday afternoon, O'Brien and Sen. Lawrence Farnese announced that they wrote to the Gaming Control Board with their observations on why Philadelphia does not yet have an open casino.

The Board should blame the casinos, not the city or others who “have intervened on behalf of affected residents” for the delays, a press statement says.

Both lawmakers oppose the board-approved riverfront locations for SugarHouse and Foxwoods and are working to have the casinos relocated to other sites within Philadelphia.
In their letter, O'Brien and Farnese elaborated on various permits the gaming operators have not received for their sites. "Sugarhouse has chosen its location, a location fraught with problems which seems to have no end in sight," the letter states.

The letter says Foxwoods’ original chosen location also has many problems, and the legislators are pleased that Foxwoods is now focused on a new location.

But Asian Americans United, Casino-Free Philadelphia, and other groups that have fought against the casinos hate the Market East site, too. They say that just like the waterfront sites, Market East is too close to residential neighborhoods.

The location of Wednesday's Gaming Control Board meeting remains the same:The State Museum Auditorium at 303 North Street in Harrisburg. The PGCB moved the meeting to the auditorium in expectation of a large crowd.

With respect to a potential redesign in alignment with the Penn-Praxis recommendations, SugarHouse said at one point it'd be open to reconsidering their plans. But that was a few months back and could have been an empty statement. Who knows.

The casino at Philly Park is a tempoary one , I think. I believe that they are now starting to build the permanent casino with more slot capacity and the possiblity to accomidate table games in the future. I would assume that Sugarhouse would do the same thing.

They might build another Slot House on the riverfront...we'll never see walkable riverfront with condo's, hotels, townhouses, etc...no one will want to live next to a slot house.

Can you imagine a neon "SUGARHOUSE" sign next the Ben Franklin Bridge? My god, I cringe. Most of my distaste comes from the lazy lingo regarding "tax revenue." Bring companies here, cut taxes, and create jobs. Slot revenue is a failed stop gap.

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I don't want to start an anti-casino rant...I'm just concerned about our city. We're not a savvy bunch and my fear is that this endeavor will cripple the momentum we have going for us right now.

I dont think they have the money for a neon sign. Looking at the plans of Sugarhouse that lot is poised to be 80% surface parking lots. The interem phase that they plan to shoot up is absolutely hideous.